“The C-Section Epidemic”

Sometimes FLP commenter Patrick S. O’Donnell has a post about this up at the Medical Humanities Blog. You can find articles with the same approximate headline in mainstream newspapers going back twenty years, when the rates were actually lower. This 2005 USA article reports:

The U.S. C-section rate hit another all-time high in 2004, according to preliminary government data released Tuesday.

In 2004, 29.1% of all births were C-sections, a 40% increase since 1996, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics reported.

“I keep wondering what that breaking point is going to be,” says San Marcos, Calif., resident Tonya Jamois, president of the International Cesarean Awareness Network, an advocacy group that promotes vaginal delivery. “I’m concerned that people are going to see this almost 30% number and say, ‘OK, it’s no big deal.’ “